December 24, 2006

Washington: Decked-Out Capital (Without Crowds)

By PAULA DWYER

IT’S a beautiful thing — Washington without the tour buses.

Like most Washingtonians, I only begrudgingly accept that I must share the city with a cavalcade of charter buses dispensing tourists most of the year. Visiting taxpayers have as much right to the nation’s capital as do its half-million residents, I frequently remind myself. And visit they do, roughly seven million to nine million fanny-packers a year.

The hordes start arriving in March for spring break and pick up the pace for the Cherry Blossom Festival; stay thick in the hot summer months, when families wait in line for tickets at 8 a.m. just so they can wait in line again to get into the Capitol Building; and are still thick in the fall, when conventiongoers seem to storm the city, leading with their name tags.

What few tourists learn is that Washington is far more pleasant in winter, when everything is open as usual, yet the city is blissfully empty of crowds. And best of all is December, when evergreen garlands festoon the White House, the luxury hotels offer deep discounts and even the hottest restaurants have tables available. This is when the locals come out to play.

Like the holiday season in New York, Washington’s December is an urban experience, one with candlelight tours of historic homes, late-night jazz in seasonally decorated clubs around Duke Ellington’s U Street neighborhood, hot toddies by a cozy fireplace in Georgetown and dance troupes performing in the open air. But although the urban holiday in New York comes with impenetrable crowds in Times Square, claustrophobic throngs at Rockefeller Center and long lines waiting to shuffle past the Saks Fifth Avenue window display, Washington is quiet and relaxed. Yet it’s still Washington, with all of its resplendent monuments, world-class museums and manicured parks. Not to mention the National Christmas Tree.

One night early this season, the night air was cold and crisp, and Bing Crosby softly crooned from the loud speakers on the Ellipse behind the White House, serenading the polite crowd at the National Christmas Tree. At 5 p.m., when the big tree’s 75,000 lights suddenly went on, the throng oohed, then applauded.

It was a Norman Rockwell tableau — excited children atop dads’ shoulders, swaddled babies in strollers, grandparents taking pictures — except that Spanish, Vietnamese and Hindi could be heard almost as often as English. Nearby, 56 smaller trees represent every state and territory.

Over by one of the model trains encircling the 40-foot blue spruce, 10 members of the Butler and Spears families, ages 2 to 42, sang “The Twelve Days of Christmas” a cappella. Living in Washington, said Marshay Spears, 15, means they can visit the tree every year.

Annual pilgrimages, it seems, are common. Adelaide Morrissey, 64, and her husband, William, 82, who were also at the tree, dig out their hats, gloves and wool coats every year for a holiday-season trip from Arizona to Washington. They have faithfully done so for at least 10 years, possibly longer, Mrs. Morrissey said.

Jeray Simms, 41, and her son Jeremy, 12, also come every year to see the big tree — and the one honoring Ohio, which has Rock and Roll Hall of Fame-inspired ornaments. They live in the Virginia suburbs, but Ms. Simms was from Cleveland, she explained. She had climbed a fence and posed for a photo beside the Ohio tree.

Just down Constitution Avenue, at the Victorian-looking rink next to the National Gallery of Art Sculpture Garden, the Zamboni machine finished smoothing the surface. The skaters were ready to storm the ice, to strains of Elvis Presley.

Several days earlier, at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, the most somber and elegant of Washington’s many war memorials, Jean Ann Brinlee and her husband, Chris, were making tracks. They had only three days to see everything the nation’s capital had to offer, and since flying in from Tulsa, Okla., the day before they “just kinda ran amok,” said Ms. Brinlee, going from the National Museum of the American Indian to the Holocaust Museum to the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum.

The Brinlees, a middle-aged couple with two grown daughters, were disappointed to learn that the National Museum of American History was closed for restoration until mid-2008, but delighted to find that Andrew Jackson’s coat, Edison’s light bulb, Dorothy’s ruby slippers and more than 150 other objects from its collection were on temporary display at the Air and Space Museum.

They had gone to the trouble to preorder tickets for the Bureau of Printing and Engraving, but they didn’t need them. “The lines have been zero,” Ms. Brinlee said. “We didn’t have to wait once.”

Washington’s unique urban experience may also include something that’s rarer elsewhere — politician sightings. Marnie Russell, who lives in Brooklyn, was wearing a light jacket and toting a camera, about to make her way to the just-renovated National Portrait Gallery in the Penn Quarter, about halfway between the Capitol and the White House. This was her first trip to Washington, she said, and the portrayal of the city on television “doesn’t seem real to me, so I wanted to check it out for myself.”

She was in luck: Congress was in town for a postelection session. I told her the best place to spot a politician or two was at the Charlie Palmer steakhouse or the Sonoma wine bar, both near Capitol Hill, but only for a few more days.

As Christmas closes in, lawmakers adjourn for the year and quickly board their flights home. The pace slows down; the traffic thins. Washington, suddenly and rarely languorous and easygoing, feels again — as it does for a brief winter respite each year — like the Southern city it is.

VISITOR INFORMATION

From December to February, the iconic sites of Washington are easygoing places, mostly free of clamorous crowds.

The Smithsonian museums and the National Gallery are free as always, and open every day except Christmas itself. At the Capitol, tour groups snake around the public rooms without long waits in line. Tours of the White House have the bonus of Christmas decorations in December, though reservations must be made through members of Congress and visitors must go in groups of 10.

Washington may not have Broadway shows, but it offers classic theater and music, including the holiday standards in December. There are the Washington Ballet’s “Nutcracker” at the Warner Theater (13th and E Streets NW, 202-783-4000; www.warnertheatre.com), “A Christmas Carol” at Ford’s Theater (511 10th Street NW, 202-347-4833; www.fordstheatre.org) and concerts at the Kennedy Center (202-467-4600, www.kennedy-center.org).

In the vibrant Penn Quarter, north of Pennsylvania Avenue about halfway between the White House and the Capitol, new ethnic restaurants are Zengo (781 Seventh Street NW, 202-393-2929; www.modernmexican.com/zengodc), which fuses Mexican and Asian flavors; Acadiana (901 New York Avenue NW, 202-408-8848; www.acadianarestaurant.com), with contemporary Louisiana comfort food; and Rasika (633 D Street NW, 202-637-1222; www.rasikarestaurant.com), serving up modern Indian fare.

Georgetown, always the best place for boutique shopping, has had a face-lift, with repaved streets and renovated lamp poles that make M Street more inviting than it has been in decades. Stop in Leopold’s Kafe & Konditorei (3318 M Street NW, 202-965-6005; www.kafeleopolds.com) for a Viennese coffee and pastry.

The National Portrait Gallery at Eighth and F Streets reopened in July after a six-year renovation, with redesigned space for its collection of presidential portraits, including Gilbert Stuart’s famous Lansdowne portrait of George Washington. The American Art Museum shares half the space. Both are open daily except on Dec. 24, 25 and 26, and stay open to 9 p.m. on Thursdays and Fridays in keeping with the Penn Quarter’s circadian rhythms.

The National Zoo’s 16-month-old giant panda cub, Tai Shan, now 80 pounds, can at last be viewed without a special ticket. The zoo, near the Woodley Park Metro stop on Connecticut Avenue, is open with free admission daily except on Dec. 25.

The Sculpture Garden, adjacent to the National Gallery of Art, features ice skating daily from mid-November through mid-March, weather permitting. But for a less crowded spin, try Pershing Park, across from the Willard Hotel at 14th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue. Both rinks rent skates and stay open to 11 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays.